Connecticut western news., 1887-09-21
THEY RAN AWAY.
BY REBECCA HARDING DAVIS.

My aunt, said the doctor, was brought up in queer way, different from any American girl, though she was an Ameri- can.
 Among the mountains in Pennsylvania there are two or three ancient German towns, founded long before the Revolu- tion, by the Moravians. The huge, mas sive stone buildings stand still-and are likely to stand for centuries-in which the early communities dwelt together, yet separate. There are the Brother and Sister Houses, and the Gemcin, or Con- mon House. These are occupied now by the widows of Moravian missionaries with their children.
 There is deadly quiet and chilly cleanliness about these great dwellings Each little suite of family rooms opens out into wide stone corridors, in which no speck of dust is allowed to remain. A fly would hardly dare to enter the open windows, to disturb that absolute order and silence.
 My Aunt Maria was the only daughter of one of these widows. She had never known any other home than the huge Sister House, where life went on like a clock that moved without ticking.
 She rose at dawn, and helped her mother put their three neat rooms into still more perfect order. Then she ate her breakfast and was washed for the second time; her f1axen hair was plaited behind, and tied with bow of brown ribbon; then, books in hand, the de- mure little maiden paced across the green quadrangle to the school where all the children of the church were taught. When school was over, she sat with her knitting by her mothers side. She never had ventured into the quiet street alone. --- . On rare occasions the children in the Community houses played hide-a -and-seek in thesattics which ran under the roof around the three sides of the great square. These proceedings, however, were usually regarded as disorderly by the grave widows.
 But Maria had one adventure in her life which rose out of it, as the peak of Teneriffe does out of the flat ocean around it. When she was ten years old, she ran away! How it came about mo- body ever knew, Maria herself least oi all. It may have grown out of tempo rary insanity, the reaction from the long dullness and quiet.
 John Freitag, the Widow Freitag's son, persuaded her into it. He told hel of the plan hundred times, on the way home from school. Some of the towr boys told him of it it was an everyday matter to them. When old Gottfrey Sohner started to the next settlement about five miles down the valley, hi wagon loaded with great bags of corn the boys would hide among the topmos sacks, and there lie safely until the enc of the journey was reached. Gottfre, was -humored old man, and, afte grumbling little, always brought then back in the empty wagon before night fall.
 The idea grew, week after week, il the little girls mind, under her dul eyes and smooth plaits, and at last sh suddenly declared that she would go an, "see the world"
 One morning in September, afte Maria and John had gone into the schoo and hung up their wraps, they too them down again, walked slowly out c | the door, and down the street to the in yard. Even in running away, they di not hurry; they did not know how t hurry. In the yard stood Sohner's gres wagon, heaped with sacks. Nobod was near, and they climbed up and hi in the hollows on the top. Present. the mules were brought out and hal messed, Gottfrey climbed up and cracke his whip the great mass shook an rocked, and they were off,
 My aunt always told me that she w; not afraid. She forgot her mother, an that she was committing horrible sil according to the rules that she had lee taught
 ''It was all so strange and beautiful
 she used to say; "the clouds rushin past us overhead, the moving processic
 of trees, the strong wind-I was wilt I could have shrieked for joy!'
 I always fancicd my staid aunt had
 turbulent heart under her brown cap
 Both the children soon fell asleep, b
 ing unused to the steady rocking motto
 When they awokc the sun was owe
 head. Could Gottfrey have spent fo'
 hours in driving five miles? Could
 be going farther than usual? Th'
 whispered to each other in alarm, b
 there was no way of finding the real si
 uation. John had never made this de
 perate venture before, and therefo
 knew none of the landmarks. Tn
 dared not let Gottfrey know that tn
 were there until the journey was owe
 or he might abandon them on the roa
 Who knew what wild beasts inhabit
 these jungles of laurel through whi
 they drove2